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Originally Posted by kennyc
How do you figure? Have you seen the costs involved?
I don't know if that is true or not. It's really not Amazon that controls the price, but the publisher, so what you are saying may very well be true, but if so I believe it is only an artificial price set based on the print book.
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Nope, I'm not making it up.
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Amazon, which sets the price for everything it sells, is, as many people interviewed point out, losing money on a majority of Kindle editions. Although the price point for Kindle editions varies, the dominant one for hardcover bestsellers is $9.99, a price one publisher called “a killer.” (The e-tailer is pricing some of its Kindle bestsellers even more aggressively, with titles like Stephenie Meyer's New Moon, currently #4 on the Kindle bestseller list, at $6.04.) At $9.99 Amazon is selling its Kindle editions at, generally, a 60% discount; Amazon sells its print bestsellers at, on average, a 45% discount. The reigning price point in the Sony e-book store, with variations, is $11.99.
That Amazon is currently treating the bulk of Kindle editions as loss leaders—items it either breaks even on or loses on to build market share in e-book sales and to fuel the growth of the Kindle—is one of the worrisome aspects of the current system.
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They mention their trademark 9.99 as a loss leader. A loss leader is basically something that is priced to entice people to buy their product or into their store but at a loss. It can be compared to the dollar menu at McDonalds. They entice customers into the restaurant with the dollar menu in hopes that the customer will purchase additional things off the dollar menu. They don't actually make any money off the dollar menu.
Article here
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6657272.html